The most important change in Windows 2000 is the inclusion of Active Directory, a fully qualified directory service. It's so important that if you're a systems administrator, you're likely to find coming to grips with Active Directory to be one of your biggest headaches. But it doesn't have to be that way, thanks to Windows 2000 Active Directory. Written by a participant in the Windows 2000 Rapid Deployment Program, Windows 2000 Active Directory delivers the practical, hands-on information you need to manage your site. Instead of filling pages with a screen-by-screen description of the graphical user interface, it focuses on the tasks you need to perform to manage your organization's directory effectively. The heavy emphasis on scripting with the ADSI will help you automate tasks to achieve greater reliability and save time. Windows 2000 Active Directory is divided into three sections: The Basics, which provides an overview of the Active Directory technology and a detailed introduction to AD features. Design, which describes mapping your organization's typology into the Active Directory schema; specific topics include the AD namespace and DNS, AD objects such as sites and domains, replication, group policies, and migration issues. Scripting, which covers the powerful capabilities of the Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI), including ADSI's use with ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), Active Server Pages (ASP), and Visual Basic (VB). Windows 2000 Active Directory is a practical guide to the new technology for the overworked system or network administrator. Whether you're working regularly in the Windows 2000 environment or just evaluating Windows 2000 in order to understand the design issues involved, this book builds the solid foundation you need to understand Active Directory and use it effectively.